


A Mutual Dislike

by TheMightyFlynn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Attempted Sexual Assault, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 07:33:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8135620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMightyFlynn/pseuds/TheMightyFlynn
Summary: Neither Severus or Rosmerta have ever really liked Gilderoy Lockhart. His actions don’t help those feelings.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Toodleoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toodleoo/gifts).



> Written based off the prompt: They both really, really despise Gilderoy Lockhart. WHY? (Could be set during CoS, but wouldn't have to be?)  
> For the Severusrosmerta fest on livejournal.

**Title** : A Mutual Dislike  
**Type** : Fic  
**Prompter** : too_dle_oo  
**Creator** : themightyflynn  
**Beta(s)** : Jess  
**Rating** : PG-13  
**Warning(s)** : Attempted non-con  
**Prompt** : F-3. They both really, really despise Gilderoy Lockhart. WHY? (Could be set during CoS, but wouldn't have to be?)  
**Note** : My eternal thanks to my beta, Jess. To my prompter: I hope you like what this fic turned into!  
**Summary** : Neither Severus or Rosmerta have ever really liked Gilderoy Lockhart. His actions don’t help those feelings.

 

**January, 1982**

There were many things that Severus had imagined himself doing on the day before his twenty-second birthday. Sitting in a dank potions classroom holding detention was not one of them. He barely bit back a sigh as his eyes flicked once again up to the clock on the wall then back down to the two students sitting before him, slouched over their workbooks. He was still waiting on one student; one who had disrupted his classes too often this semester, despite it only being the very start of term.

Rising from his seat, Severus began a slow turn of the classroom. He had only taken over the position of Potions Master a few months previously under Dumbledore’s command and, if he had to be honest, he hated it. He hated the students, he hated the faculty, and most especially of all, he hated the reason he had become trapped there. But he wouldn’t think of that; not in front of the students where he ran the risk of absolutely humiliating himself. Sweeping around the end of the aisle, Severus enjoyed the small flinch one of the students gave as he neared him. He was just about to pause and lean over the boy’s shoulder when the door to the room was flung open. Severus spun around, his robes whipping about his legs.

“Mr. Lockhart.”

Standing in the doorway to the classroom, Gilderoy Lockhart seemed to be posing: his hands were placed carefully on his hips, his hair tousled so it flopped into his eyes, and a wide smile graced his face. It was a face that Severus had wanted to just punch so many times over the years; just abandon his magic altogether for the complete joy of causing as much bodily harm as he could with his fist. His fingers flexed behind his back at the thought, but Severus held himself back. He had yet to lose his cool with any of the students and he would be absolutely damned if the one to get to him first was to be this floppy-haired ponce.

“Professor.”

The very sound of Lockhart’s voice sent revulsion racing down Severus’ spine, but he ignored it. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to be allowing his personal feelings towards particular students to cloud his judgement of them in the classroom, but this was one student who had tested his patience even back when Severus had still been a student himself. He watched as Lockhart strutted forward, the cocky smile never once leaving his face.

“What do you want me doing today, Professor? Making you some kind of potion? Perhaps even working on the recipe? I’m sure I could improve on them, given a little time. I have always–”

“This is detention, Lockhart,” Severus interrupted, a slight snarl to his voice. “You will be sitting at your desk finishing off the work you did not finish yesterday morning because you were too busy trying to impress Miss King and her friends. Take your seat, open your book to page one hundred and forty three and get to work.”

He didn’t bother to watch Lockhart to see whether he obeyed his commands; if he didn’t do his detention straight away, Severus would just keep him there until he was finished. Continuing his sweep of the classroom, Severus leant over the shoulder of the student in front of him, checking to see how far into his work he was. He could hear Lockhart messing around with his quills and ink behind him, clunking and scraping. The only other sound in the room was the scratching of the quills of the other two students and Severus’ own footsteps as he moved as quietly as possible around the room. Severus’ top lip curled as he spun around at the front of the classroom so he could lean his hips back against the desk.

“Professor?”

Severus sighed. “What is it, Lockhart?”

“I believe that there is a mistake in this textbook.”

Unable to help himself, Severus rolled his eyes. Lockhart had always been one of those people who could get on his nerves simply by existing, but this habit of his of supposedly finding fault in every single thing he encountered – faults he could, coincidentally, fix himself – really grated at the last of Severus’ control.

“This potion the chapter is on can have many varied uses and this book doesn’t list a single one of them. Once I am out of school, I may have to rewrite the entire thing. We can’t have future generations entering the real world – so to speak – with a lack of knowledge on potions now, can we?”

Severus merely stared at Lockhart for a few seconds. The urge to inform him that if the future generations came from anyone other than him, then that was their head start on not being a complete ignoramus was bubbling up inside Severus, but he knew he had to suppress it. Shaking his head, he contented himself with reminding Lockhart that he was there to finish his work in silence, not create his magnum opus. Thankfully, Lockhart fell silent after that.

The two other students had long finished their chapters when the bell for lunch rang. Lockhart was still sitting in his chair, his head bent over his work and quill scratching as he wrote. Severus let out a loud, slightly pointed sigh when the bell finished clanging.

“This work needs to be finished _today_ , Mr. Lockhart.”

“Somewhere important to be, Professor?” Severus’ eyes snapped to Lockhart, who was watching him with a curious look on his face. “Or perhaps some _one_ to see?”

Severus’ stomach lurched as his mind went immediately to what – who – he had lost the year before. Surely Lockhart couldn’t remember what had occurred during Severus’ fifth year? Lockhart had only been a first year, which meant that he had been so completely beneath Severus’ notice that he honestly couldn’t even remember the boy’s Sorting let alone remember whether he had been around during _that_ incident. His hands clenched on the edge of his desk as a mix of emotions surged through him, each fighting to be felt first.

“My personal life is none of your business, Lockhart.”

“Of course not, Professor,” Lockhart responded with a smirk.

The challenge held in that expression sent suspicion running down Severus’ spine, but exactly what Lockhart could be up to was beyond him. He certainly wasn’t someone Severus would ever suspect of being capable of being malicious or devious in any way, but Severus knew for a fact that it was exactly those types of people who could be the most dangerous. Still, he chose to ignore it. He could and would be the bigger man in these situations, especially when the person antagonising him was someone as insignificant as Gilderoy Lockhart.

It was another half hour before Lockhart moved again. Severus’ gaze went immediately to him as he sauntered up to the front desk, his work held in one hand and the other sweeping through his hair. Another surge of revulsion rocked through Severus when Lockhart shot him what he obviously thought to be a charming smile.

“All done, Professor. I resisted the urge to correct the text as it so obviously needs.” The curious look returned to his face for a brief moment before he continued. “It would cut into my personal life, you see. I have a date with a very charming lady later on today.”

Clenching his hands beneath his desk, Severus tried to put the thought that Lockhart was trying to deliberately provoke him from his mind. “What exactly are you implying, Lockhart?”

“Oh, nothing, Professor. Just that with everything that has been going on in the world recently, we can’t afford to waste any time really, can we?” Turning from Severus’ desk, Lockhart took a few steps before looking back at him over his shoulder. “Such shocking news about that family caught up in that explosion back around Halloween, wasn’t it, though? And all this business with He Who Must Not Be Named recently.” He paused to shake his head, obviously oblivious to the fact that Severus’ hands were beginning to shake as he attempted to control the anger now building rapidly up inside him. “Of course, it was pretty obvious how to stop him; to me, at least. I’d been telling my friends for months now that all you had to do was shoot him with a Blasting Curse and that would be the end of him–”

The exploding of a jar on the shelf above Severus’ head cut into Lockhart’s exposition, causing him to jump. His eyes flicked from the dripping shelf and back to Severus a few times, obviously taking in Severus’ clenched jaw and hands as he stared at him.

“Leave my classroom _now_ , Lockhart.”

Severus’ voice was tight; controlled. He had managed to make sure it didn’t shake when he spoke, but that was about as far as he trusted himself at that point in time. He had absolutely no idea whether Lockhart was attempting to provoke a reaction out of him on purpose or whether he was just being his usual clueless self, but there was no way he was going to allow the idiot to continue speaking about Lily as though he could have prevented her death. When Lockhart did nothing other than stand and blink at him, Severus shoved himself up from his desk, his hands still clenched tightly in to fists.

“Get. Out.”

Lockhart shot one last look to the dripping shelf above Severus’ head before turning and sweeping out of the room without another word. Closing his eyes, Severus took several deep breaths and let them out slowly. How it was possible for one person to be so completely oblivious, Severus had no idea, but Lockhart had managed to teach him a rather valuable lesson that day: never give a student the benefit of the doubt. Lockhart may or may not have been the complete idiot he presented the world with, but Severus was certainly never going to take that chance again. And the rest of the student body were going to pay the price for that.

**January, 1992**

There was something rather disturbing about Gilderoy Lockhart. With his incredible good looks, his tales of his adventures, and his popularity with the ladies, there was simply something that Rosmerta didn’t trust about him. She offered a small smile to one of her regulars as he left the bar before turning her attention back to the man sitting at one of her more prominent tables in the window. She vaguely recalled seeing him around the bar back when he had been a student at Hogwarts, strutting around with the obvious expectation that everyone would fawn over him. Shaking her head, Rosmerta turned back to her work.

It was a few days before the students returned to the school, which meant that a good many of the faculty were taking this last chance of coming down into the village before they were overrun with children once again. Gilderoy wasn’t the only professor sitting in the bar, nursing one last drink after lunch: Aurora Sinistra, Charity Burbage and Septima Vector all sat in a booth at the back of the bar; Hagrid had been in earlier for a chat and a few whiskeys; Irma Pince had stuck her head in while looking for Poppy Pomfrey; Rosmerta even thought that she had seen Severus Snape lurking around somewhere earlier in the day. She shook her head again as she glanced around the bar. At least they knew how to have fun on their days off, she figured as she went back to her duties, her slight feeling of discomposure forgotten momentarily. 

It wasn’t until much later that day that Gilderoy even crossed her mind again. She was just closing up for the night, having kicked the last of the stragglers out, when the crunch of footsteps on snow reached her ears. Spinning around quickly, she let out a breath when she caught sight of a flash of blond hair and pale blue robes in the shadow between the bar and the building next-door.

“Gilderoy? Is that you, luv?” She automatically took a few steps back into the light of the doorway, knowing that she would be able to step into safety and lock the door before he was able to reach her if need be. “What are you still doing out at this time of night?”

“Oh, you know how it is, Rosie; how difficult it is for someone of my calibre to walk the streets without a mob of adoring fans following me around.”

Rosmerta’s top lip curled a little at his use of the pet name for her. He was still standing in the shadows between the buildings, which struck her as a little odd, but she stood firmly. If she had learned anything during her time running the bar, it was that she should never trust anyone late at night, not even the people she had known for a while. There was no way she was going to give him the clue that he was making her uncomfortable in any way.

“Sure, luv, sure,” she responded, despite the fact that there was no one else other than them around. “It’s quite late, though, so I think it’s about time to turn in, don’t you?”

Her earlier feeling of being disturbed while watching him in the bar had returned full-force, with the muscles in her back and shoulders tensing almost as though she was preparing for a fight. Still, she offered him a smile when he shifted, the snow crunching beneath his shoes.

“It’s not that late.”

Rosmerta’s hand immediately went to the hidden holster where she kept her wand, but she didn’t yet draw it. “Do you want me to call someone for you, luv? Maybe get Hagrid to come and take you back to the school?”

The snow crunched again as Gilderoy took a step forward, this time bringing his face into the yellow light coming from the windows of the bar. His eyes were lidded, his mouth drawn into a small smirk, and his usually immaculate hair mussed. It was plainly obvious to her that he had continued drinking once he had left her bar that afternoon, but a drunk and horny man was something she had dealt with on numerous occasions. Still, it all combined to send a chill of warning down Rosmerta’s spine and her hand clenched on the handle of her wand automatically.

“I won’t be going back to the school tonight, Rosie.”

“Really?” Her muscles bunched again in preparation to fight back if he lunged. “And why is that?”

He leered at her, his full mouth twisting in an ugly way. “Not _luv_ anymore am I? That’s a real shame: I always held a soft spot for you, Rosie.”

Gilderoy taking another step forward was all it took for Rosmerta to make her move. Whipping her wand out of its holster, she had it pressed to Gilderoy’s throat in seconds. It seemed that she was not the only one to have had the thought, though. A long-fingered hand was clenched on Gilderoy’s shoulder, holding him back. The owner of the hand was obviously standing behind Gilderoy, out of Rosmerta’s line of view, but she was certain that she knew who it belonged to.

“You are disturbing the lady’s night, Lockhart.” Rosmerta let out a shaky breath as Severus Snape’s rumbling voice sounded from behind Gilderoy. “I suggest you take a step away from her before she hexes you senseless. Not that you would not deserve it, but I would hate to see Rosmerta in trouble for something that was entirely your own fault.”

It only took a few seconds for Gilderoy to make the decision to step away. He didn’t even look back when Severus sent him stumbling with a slight shove towards the road, which Rosmerta was rather thankful for. Holstering her wand, she took a steadying breath.

“Thank you, Severus. I was unsure what he was about to do and if you hadn’t stepped in…”

“You would have quite rightly hexed him into a tiny puddle of goo?”

A tiny tilt of his lips had Rosmerta smiling in response. Running her eyes over him, she felt a sense of satisfaction wash through her. This was a man who she had never had anything other than good feelings towards, along with a strange sense of security.

“Of course.”

She grinned when she heard the sound of a low chuckle from him. Taking a chance that he had been out there for a reason, she stepped out of the doorway so she could see him properly. Standing just off the side of the road, his black cloak wrapped tightly around him and his hair falling around his face, he was a much more welcome sight than she had ever expected him to have been.

“I don’t suppose I could interest you in a nightcap, could I?”


End file.
